Although the Fourth of July itself isn’t always the best day for movies, since many people are hanging out outside, cooking barbecues and whatnot instead of going to the movies, the extended holiday period is still a good time to launch movies and we’ve seen films open to massive numbers at this time of year. That couldn’t be further from what happened this weekend, as three new openers all disappointed and Age of Extinction held the top spot practically by default.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Falling a not unexpected 64%, AOE’s sophomore decline is about right in line with most of the other $90+ openers this year. It pulled in $36.4 million this weekend, raising the total to $174.8 million. It’s running well behind the pace of Dark of the Moon, but that’s not particularly surprising. AOE does face direct competition from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes next weekend, so it’s more than likely in store for another big drop. As it stands, Optimus Prime and company will probably finish around $240 million.

Tammy opened in second with $21.2 million and $32.9 million since its Wednesday opening. That’s way off from both Identity Thief and The Heat. This result pleases me , as I dislike Melissa McCarthy and this movie looked absolutely awful. I was actually hoping it would debut to less than $20 million, but you can’t win ’em all. That said, I expect the word of mouth to be pretty bad, and as such Tammy will probably finish around $70 million at best.

Deliver us from Evil debuted with a weak $9.5 million ($15 million since Wednesday), narrowly edging out 22 Jump Street, which pulled in $9.4 million after falling 41%. The comedy sequel has a total of $159 million. Finally showing some good legs, but a little too late, How to Train Your Dragon 2 dipped 34% to $8.8 million, raising its total to $140 million. It still seems headed for a total around $155-165 million. Debuting down in sixth, Earth to Echo could muster up only $8.3 million and just $13.5 million since Wednesday.

Well, folks, we got some awful news this weekend. Maleficent is all but guaranteed to pass out Days of Future Past and become the highest grossing film of the summer. This is not a world in which I want to live. Anyway, this Angelina Jolie debacle slipped just 27% to $6.1 million. That lifted the inexplicably high total to $213.9 million, meaning this movie looks headed for a total around $230-235 million. Please, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, come along and destroy this movie. You’re our only hope.

Jersey Boys slid just 33% to $5.2 million. The total stands at $36.7 million. Think Like a Man too continued its precipitous decline, falling 53% to $4.9 million and lifting its sum to $57.2 million. We wrap up the top ten with Edge of Tomorrow, which declined 33% to $3.6 million. With about $91 million in the bank, it may just be able to crawl its way to $100 million. All in all, this was the worst Fourth of July weekend we’ve seen in fifteen years. It’s a perfect microcosm of an awful summer for the box office. As I said earlier, DOTPOTA remains our best hope for salvation, but that film would need a miracle to break $300 million. We’ll just have to wait and see.